1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a mobile communication terminal, and more particularly, to a method for preventing illegal use of a mobile communication terminal by a third party or a stranger.
2. Description of the Background Art
These days, thanks to its portability and convenience, a mobile communication terminal (referred to as ‘terminal’, hereinafter) is used by lots of people. The terminal provides various additional functions such as an address, a phone number, an itinerary management or a memo for a user's convenience.
If the terminal is lost with the various additional function provided, the user information stored in the corresponding terminal would be exposed as it is to a stranger. In order to prevent an illegal use of the lost terminal by a stranger, currently, various restriction functions such as a phone-locking function are provided to the terminal.
First, the user sets a phone-locking menu through a user interface, inputs a lock code to set a phone-locking state for the terminal.
Once the phone-locking state is set, the terminal is put in a state that it can only receive a call. Thus, even though the corresponding terminal is lost, the terminal is prevented from illegally using by a stranger and leakage of the user's personal information can be prevented.
However, there has not been proposed any method for maintaining the user information and preventing an illegal use of a lost terminal by a stranger in case that a terminal is lost while its phone-locking function is not set.
Thus, in the past, if a terminal is lost while its phone-locking function is not set, there arises a problem that a stranger may use it illegally or leak the user information (an address, a phone number or a certain memo) stored in the terminal.
The above references are incorporated by reference herein where appropriate for appropriate teachings of additional or alternative details, features and/or technical background.